What’s New Pussycat? May 31, 2008

Growing up – my dad would drive us all around New Mexico and southern Colorado. We never visited Carlsbad Caverns, or took a trip to Taos…We took a drive to Carslbad, a drive to Taos. The drive was the part of the excursion my mom and I loved the most. The drive was better than what we drove to. To this day I ask my husband to take me on drives. Where? It doesn’t matter, I just want to go for a drive.

Drives with mom and dad were better than the destination because there were frequent stops for doughnuts, hamburgers, or fancy drinks from bakery’s. We would stop at cool shops - I’d always get some sort of nicknack, we would stop at landmarks and listen to my dads long, partly interesting version of its history. The drives were the best. I would pack a bag with a book, seek-a-word, gameboy, MadLib, things I could entertain myself with in the backseat which I had all to myself since my brother didn’t have the patience for these drives. Everything about these drives annoyed him for some reason. To this day, we fight if we have to drive together.

I would sit quietly, yes, quietly in the back seat and enjoy the whole experience….watching my parents love each other – my mom would shell pistachios for my dad as he drove, or fill his palm with trail mix or pinon to munch on. I would watch my dad flip a u-turn and back track because mom decided she wanted to stop at that store afterall. I would sit in the back seat and think I was cool because we drove all the way to Santa Fe just to have breakfast at our favorite bakery La Fonda. I will cherish those drives with mom and dad, and am taken right back to the backseat of the car every time I hear Tom Jones, ” What’s new pussycat…Woah,Woah”